


Nobody Said It Was Easy

by mrsfallonridley



Category: Dynasty (TV 2017)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Divorce, F/M, Future Fic, Future!Falliam, Marriage, Mommy!Fallon, Original Character(s), Parenthood, Parents!Falliam, References to Depression, daddy!Liam
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-10
Updated: 2020-02-10
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:47:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22642822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mrsfallonridley/pseuds/mrsfallonridley
Summary: The one where Fallon and Liam decide to get a divorce."Thought we built a dynasty that heaven couldn’t shake.Thought we built a dynasty like nothing ever made.Thought we built a dynasty forever couldn’t break."
Relationships: Fallon Carrington & Liam Ridley, Fallon Carrington/Liam Ridley
Comments: 6
Kudos: 48





	Nobody Said It Was Easy

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the songs The Scientist by Coldplay (a true poem) and Dynasty by MIIA (a classic in the Falliam fandom!). 
> 
> This feels way too confusing and long but it's the best I got. Oh, well, I hope someone enjoys it. I have this whole Future!Falliam universe living in my head with all the details of what happens before and after this. I wish my brain was strong enough to translate it all properly into words. 
> 
> I apologize in advance for any spelling/grammar mistakes. I read through it a couple times, but there is always something I miss...

It was past 11pm when Fallon carefully tried to open the large door that led into their master bedroom. She had even taken off her heels so the sound of them clashing on their hardwood floors wouldn’t wake anybody up. However, Liam was not sleeping. She was hoping he would be, but as expected he wasn’t.

Over the past 10 years, Liam had gotten used to fall asleep with Fallon by his side and he truly struggled to fall asleep when she was not there. He needed to feel her presence and know that she would be safely there by his side.

“I called you.” He said simply when she snuck in the room. He sat up in bed and watched her as she stopped and froze in the middle of the bedroom, not knowing what to do.

“My phone’s battery died.” Fallon replied as she placed her heels on the floor and then proceeded to simply head straight to the bathroom. Liam knew it would take her a while to get back; first because she would probably need to take all her makeup off and then take her long nightly shower, and second, because she had been, and Liam knew it perfectly, avoiding him for a while now. But they really needed to talk, and he wasn’t gonna let it go past tonight.

Things between them hadn’t been good for a while and it had gotten to a place they had agreed they would never allow themselves to be in. They weren’t talking, or showing affection or even at times, respecting each other like they had promised to always do, no matter what.

“You know we need to talk…” Liam said by the bathroom’s door frame. She was removing her makeup and didn’t even bother to look back at him. “We cannot simply let it slide, Fallon…”

“I’m tired. I just want to sleep. It’s late. Go to bed. We will talk tomorrow.” She sighed and continued her nighttime routine. She didn’t want to start another fight like the one they had had the night before.

“That’s what you said yesterday and the day before that. We really can’t go on like this… I’m tired of this, Fallon!” Liam had been patient. He had tried to understand, and he tried to give her space, but the past year and a half, since their son Jack had been born, had not been easy for them. Neither of them.

“Ok. Fine. Let’s talk…” Fallon put down the makeup wipes and turned around in the vanity’s chair. She was trying to hold it together, but she could feel a pool of tears forming in her eyes. She had been avoiding this conversation for a reason. “Just say it.”

“You have been really unhappy. I can tell… and I don’t know why you won’t let me help you... Or even get close to you… And… I have been… really confused about what we are doing to our family, Fallon. What happened yest-”

“So, you want a divorce?” Fallon cut him off. She sounded firm but sad. The silence filled the room for a few seconds as they intensely starred at each other.

“That’s not what I said.” Liam tried to get closer to her, but she got up to avoid his touch. She knew it would be way harder to keep it together after she felt his touch on her skin. “But what happened last night cannot be repeated… I don’t know what else to do.” Liam continued.

“Liam, I’m tired, and I can’t do this right now. If it is a divorce you want, just say it. You don’t have to be afraid to say it. I won’t break.” Jack, their youngest child, had been born at 32 weeks. He was the tiniest baby Fallon and Liam had ever seen. For a while they couldn’t hold him because he had several tubes attached to his little body and each day that passed, and he grew a little bit, Fallon couldn’t help but think about where it had gone wrong. That was when she first broke.

“You can say it if you want…” Fallon repeated on the verge of tears; her voice breaking.

The first time Liam suggested Fallon could have been suffering from a postpartum depression, it did not go down well. It involved tears, accusations and ended up in a lot of hurt feelings.

They had just taken Jack home and Liam could tell something was off with Fallon. He had their previous experience with Ellie to compare it to, but he told himself that maybe she had been acting different because of the stress of Jack’s birth or that maybe she just needed time to adjust to having another kid... However, as time went by, and things only got worse, Liam was sure he needed to do something to help his wife. He remembered what was like when his mom had her mental breakdown and that was the last thing he wanted for Fallon.

“You said it, Fallon, not me… Is that what you want? Do you want a divorce?” Liam couldn’t even believe they were discussing it. Jack was now almost 18 months and the beautiful and healthy baby they prayed for, and ever since Fallon had gone back to work, things had never been the same again. That’s when everything really started to fall apart. She seemed better, he thought. She got out of bed and slowly eased back into their old routine; her moods and anxiety stabilized, and Liam truly believed things between them would also go back to how they were before but that didn’t happen.

“Honestly, I don’t know… I don’t want it. I don’t want it for us, or Ellie, or Jack, but all we have done lately is fight, and ignore each other so we don’t end up fighting… and there is this tension… and at the end of the day… I don’t want to come home… and I don’t want our kids’ memories to be of us like we are right now…”

“We need help, Fal. I felt terrible about what happened with Ellie yesterday.” He paused for a while to carefully choose his words. “We promised we wouldn’t let that happen, Fallon. We can’t.” The previous night, they had been too involved in a heated argument to notice their 5-year-old daughter, Eleanor, walking into their bedroom crying.

She had been woken up by the yelling and of course, that when they saw her standing there, holding her pink stuffed bunny, both Fallon and Liam were left paralyzed and in panic. They had vowed not to let history repeat itself. They wanted to do better than their parents had done, and, in that moment, it felt like they had totally failed. It took Ellie’s tears for them to snap back into reality.

“And, I didn’t like what you did yesterday!” Liam added. As they both rushed to the little girl, Fallon picked up Ellie, who held on tightly to her neck while sobbing. Fallon didn’t know what to do to calm her down, so she just left the room without a word. Liam tried to follow them, but Fallon just looked back at him with a ‘I got it’. He didn’t want to cause any more unnecessary stress, so he just let them go. “You just took her with you and make me feel like the villain!”

“Are you serious? I took her to her bedroom and tried to calm her down! It’s not like I ran away with her! I apologized in behalf of both of us!” Fallon noticed the increasing volume in her voice and made a conscious effort to keep it down in order to avoid another unwanted visit from Ellie. “I… I just wanted to make sure she felt safe.”

“I’m not even going to comment on that, Fallon...” he sighed and tried to remain cool. “What I know is that you took her, and you didn’t come back. You didn’t even let me be there and…” he felt really emotional about the whole situation. Ellie was a total daddy’s girl and had been since day 1. She ran into his arms whenever she saw him. She loved when he read to her, played make believe and sang along to her favorite songs in the car. Ellie loved to be carried on her father’s shoulders and to go on special father-daughter dates. She was the first and only real competition Fallon ever had.

“I fell asleep on her bed, Liam. We were both really tired and fell asleep…” Fallon sat down as she explained herself. “I can assure you that I didn’t make it sound like it was your fault… I would never do that.” She said firmly. “You know I wouldn’t. You are an amazing dad and she loves you. I would never do anything that could jeopardize your relationship with her…”

“So, why was she acting all weird with me today? She was acting up for no reason.”

“Maybe she was tired! I have no idea, Liam… What I can assure you is that it was nothing I said to her.”

“Fallon… I just feel like you are not okay. You-”

“I’m not okay?” she interrupted him and shook her head in disbelief. “You are not gonna compare me to your crazy mother again, are you?” Fallon got on her robe and left the bathroom. “Funny, funny…” she muttered to herself, flashbacks of the past year going through her mind. “You know what? I told you I didn’t want to do this right now…” she said on the verge of tears. “We can’t keep doing this. I’m done.” She felt tears streaming down her face and she tried to wipe them without him noticing, which of course he did anyways.

“So, that’s it? You are back to ignoring me, is it?” Liam followed her. “You are gonna throw away 10 years of marriage just like that?”

“What do you want to do? Afterall, I’m the crazy one!”

“I want you to give a damn!” He yelled but quickly regretted it. They starred at each other for a while in silence. Neither one knew how to move on from there. “I get it… This is how it’s going to be from now on…” Liam felt defeated. He too felt tears involuntarily rolling down his cheeks. “Well, I just hope we can do this amicably. For our children. They don’t deserve this. You can keep anything you want. I just want joint custody. Everything else you can keep. Talk to the lawyers…” At that point they were both crying. Neither of them knew how they had gotten there. Apparently, that was it. It was over.

Liam grabbed his pillow from the bed, took his night robe, his phone and the notebook on his bedside table and left the bedroom, softly closing the door behind him. “Take care, Fallon.”

* * *

When Fallon woke up the next morning, all alone in their bed, everything felt different. She sat up and checked the time. She had slept in which was something that hadn’t happened in years. However, she felt like she hadn’t even slept at all.

Most times, she was woken up when Liam got out of bed or when Ellie joined them in bed way too early on the weekends. This was a different, and the new reality she would have to adjust to. Not waking up by his side. She wondered how she ever did it before. She didn’t even get dressed; she put on her robe and went downstairs.

As she got to the end of the stairs, she heard a sweet familiar noise coming from the kitchen. She heard laughter and for a moment it was as if everything was okay. And there it was: her family; the family they had built together. They would always be a family, right? She was quickly spotted by Jack. The toddler’s agitation made Liam, who was feeding him, turn around to face her. “Hey…”

She put a big, but weak, smile on her face and walked in. “Good morning.” She kissed the baby’s honey colored hair and sat down at the kitchen table next to Ellie, who was intensely trying not to spill milk on her school uniform. Fallon had no idea what to do. She tried to avoid looking at Liam, but she couldn’t help but notice that he hadn’t taken off his wedding ring yet, unlike herself.

“Mom, are you not going to work?” Ellie asked observing that Fallon was still in her nightgown.

“I’m going later, baby...” She didn’t feel like going to work and would probably end up staying at home.

“You can take me to school!” Ellie got really excited as Fallon was always the first to leave the house in the morning and Liam ended up being the one to always take Ellie to school.

“I don’t know if mom is gonna make it in time, Ellie…” Fallon knew they would have to leave in just a few minutes and there was no way she would be able to get ready in time.

“It’s okay, Ellie. Mom will take you another day.” Liam said as he finished feeding the baby and got him out of the highchair. “We need to go now, so please finish your cereal…”

“I can take Jack.” She said simply and Liam stopped. They exchanged looks for a minute. The lack of makeup on her face and the dark circles around her eyes allowed him to tell she had been crying and probably had as a good night of sleep as he did.

“Okay…” He placed a big kiss on the toddler’s cheek before he passed him into Fallon’s arms. They kept the silence between them as Liam waited for Ellie to finish the cereal. Fallon could tell he was hurt. He would put on his brave face and be quiet and it would drive her insane how calm he could be when something bothered him, but she could tell he was hurt.

“C’mon El, it’s time to go.” Liam looked at the clock and watched as Eleanor played with the spoon and showed no intention of finishing the bowl of cereals. “Ok. You’re done.” Liam picked her up and got closer to Fallon. “Kiss mom goodbye.” In other occasions he would too, but now he was just hoping Ellie wouldn’t pick up on it. She was extremely observant and smart for a 5-year-old, after all, she was her mother’s daughter: deliciously quick-witted and intelligent. It didn’t surprise Liam one little bit. “We need to talk later, okay?” he whispered to Fallon, who just nodded in agreement.

* * *

It has been a few weeks since the process started, they talked to their lawyers and Fallon and Liam agreed that for the time being they could still live in the same house. For the children, they said. The truth was… neither one of them wanted to leave their house. The house they picked together. Their dream home. The home they brought their children to after they were born. The home where they made the best memories that they have of each other.

Fallon and Liam still hadn’t had the courage to sit down and have ‘the talk’ with Ellie. It was something they never thought they would have to do, and something the both of them really didn’t want to do.

“I want to talk to you about some of the… _divorce_ …” she whispered the word. “things. For the settlement.”

“Can’t the lawyers take care of it?” Liam asked. “I really don’t want to get into a fight with you over that stuff.”

“I think you should get half of everything.” He was sort of surprised. “I want you to have your half of the business. It is as yours as it is mine. It is ours. So… I want you to have 50% of it.” She said honestly. “I want this house, and I think this should be the kids’ primary residence.”

“What do you mean?” Liam didn’t want to jump to wrong conclusions, so he decided to let her explain herself better.

“You can come in as much as you like, really. I just don’t feel we should be moving them from house to house every few days or every other week… That would be instable for them.”

“That won’t work. No way. You know what else would be instable for them? See me come and go without ever staying!” Liam couldn’t believe she was even suggesting it. “I want to live with my kids. I’m sorry but that won’t work.”

“You would be able to come here anytime you wanted.” Fallon kept pleading her case.

“Yeah, sure. If it is so cool, why don’t we do it the other way around? They come live with me and you come visit whenever you feel like it, huh?” he was angry. If there was one thing Liam was really passionate about, it was his family. There was nothing more important to him and just the thought of disappointing his children or failing them, made him sick.

“Liam.”

“Listen, Fallon. Right now, you are trying to make a deal. You wanted this, and I can’t keep you in a relationship you don’t want to be in. I’m losing you but I am not losing my children. I want to wake up, and make them breakfast, and I want to read them the bedtime stories I write just for them… I want to live as if at the end of the night you were there, even if you aren’t… And right now, you are saying, yeah, you can be here for breakfast and bedtime and so on, but the day you… find love again…” he took a deep breath at the thought of Fallon with another man. “…that won’t work… the day you decide-…” he couldn’t bare to finish the sentences. “I just don’t want to risk it. I won’t.”

“I would never…”

“You don’t know… We also promised this was forever. Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Fallon.”

* * *

The day of their divorce was a sunny one. It was finally going to be official. Fallon was in her office at Carrington Atlantic impatiently waiting for Liam and their lawyers, who would bring all the final paperwork for them to sign.

“Hey…” Liam walked in with a gold paper bag. “While we wait… I want to give this to you…” he placed the gift bag on her desk. “I had already gotten your wedding anniversary gift and I thought I would just give it to you anyway…” One week from there it would have been their 10-year wedding anniversary. With everything that had been happening prior to the start of their divorce process, they hadn’t even bothered to discuss what to do for the big date, but Liam had been planning an epic day for them in his mind for months. Plans he was now trying to forget.

“Liam...” She reluctantly accepted the bag. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah. I have had it ready for a while now and I really want you to have it. I hope you like it.” She opened up the bag and took out a tiny box. It looked like a jewelry box and sure enough, when Fallon opened it, she saw a beautiful and unusually shaped ring. She looked up at Liam waiting for an explanation. “It’s a sound wave ring. I recorded Ellie and I saying…” he stuttered a little. “Hm, saying ‘I love you’” Fallon’s heart melted immediately. “… and I had it made for you. Hm, it also has a 10 and our wedding date craved on the inside…”

“I love it. Really… Thank you.” she said sincerely and slid the ring on the finger where her wedding band used to be. She then proceeded to take the other present out of the bag.

“This one is not really mine. I just had the idea. The execution was entirely Ellie’s.” Fallon unwrapped the present to uncover what looked like a hardcover children’s book. “I only wrote what she told me to… and I helped a bit with the illustration because she got tired of coloring. She is the princess heiress, of course...” Fallon flickered through the pages to what seemed to be the story of their family told by their 5-year-old. On the cover it read ‘Our Dynasty’ by Eleanor Ridley. Illustrations by Eleanor Ridley and daddy.

“Ugh…” Fallon felt a tear run down her cheek. “Did she really used the word dynasty?” Fallon laughed a little. She had heard her daughter use big words before but that was one she wasn’t sure she had heard before.

“She did after I suggested it and explained what it meant… It’s all Ellie approved.”

“Well, this might be one of the best presents you’ve ever gotten me.” She wiped the tears on her face. “How are we gonna tell her?” they still hadn’t talked to Ellie about the divorce and with it being official in a few minutes, their deadline was coming to an end.

“We will do it together. She will understand, and she will be okay. She is a smart girl. I think it will be okay…” Liam reassured her with a smile. 

“It feels so wrong…” she looked at the last few pages of Ellie’s book.

“Before we go ahead, I have to say…” he paused and showed her a weak smile. “…my parting vows…”

“Oh, no…” Fallon’s mind quickly flashbacks into their fake divorce party, more than a decade ago.

“I will say it again: I won’t stop fighting for you, Fallon. I meant it then, and I mean it now… I still think you are the smartest person in any room, even when you are too stubborn to see what’s right in front of you… I still hate how you spoil the ending of books to me, although, I love how you are always my first reader now…” he paused. “I love how, for the past 10 years, I have been able to smell your perfume on clothes… and know we would be back together in a few hours…” he took a deep breath. “I hate how I don’t want to be right even when I know you are wrong…” he studied her expression just like he did last time. “I love the amazing mother that you are… I love to watch you sleep and I hate that I cannot sleep without you by my side… And most of all, I hate that I will never find someone I love as much as you…”

“Liam…” She whispered while in tears.

“And then, if you remember, I said: But fate is fate. Who are we to stop it?” Liam recalled and paused for a while before continuing. “I want to thank you, Fallon.” He looked straight at her and held her hand. “For giving me the best 10 years of my life. For-…” He was cut off by her sudden kiss. As they pulled away from each other, they caught their breaths and realized they had the company of their lawyers who looked deeply confused.

“This divorce was a mistake, Liam.” Fallon stated simply. “Can you give us a minute?” she asked the lawyers who just left the room without any questions. “I don’t want this… I really don’t.” she repeated when she saw the uncomfortable look on his face. She read his mind immediately. She wanted to convince him she was really sure of what she was saying this time, so she continued before he could stop her. “I think we have a lot of work to do… you and I together. I want to keep our family like it is. I want us to make it. More than anything else. I told you… and I, too, will repeat… I love you, Liam, and I probably always will. This divorce wouldn’t change how I feel about you… it would just make everything more complicated. I think you and I can do this right.” She looked down at Ellie’s book on the table. “We have been doing it right… I mean…” she looked at the family photos she had all over her office. She had their Christmas cards from over the years, candid home pictures of them together, vacation pictures on white sand beaches… Liam’s eyes followed hers. “We just need to keep ourselves in check. I am willing to do that if you are willing to keep on being patient with me... and keep up with my occasional craziness…”

“When have I not?” he smiled at her and kissed her again.

“So, that’s a… ‘we are cancelling this divorce’?”

“Nobody said it was easy… But I don’t really care how hard it is, as long as I do it with you…”

**Author's Note:**

> And... that's it! I'm afraid the ending feels a bit rushed... I hope you liked meeting the my Falliam babies, Eleanor and Jack! After seeing Falliam discussing children in 3x12, I became even more invested in this family! I believe they could do it. They could be the family in the 15 bedroom house.


End file.
